Andrew Faulds

Andrew Matthew William Faulds (1 March 1923 – 31 May 2000) was a British actor and Labour Party politician. After a successful acting career on stage, on radio and in films, he was a Member of Parliament from 1966 to 1997.

Early life Faulds was born to Church of Scotland missionary parents in Isoko, Tanganyika. Due to his father's peripatetic vocation, he grew up in various parts of Britain, and was educated at George Watson's College, Edinburgh, King Edward VI Grammar School, Louth, Daniel Stewart's College, Edinburgh, and Stirling High School. He married Bunty Whitfield in 1945. The couple had one daughter. During the Second World War he served in both the Royal Air Force and the Fleet Air Arm.

After graduating from the University of Glasgow, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1948. He first came to a wider public recognition playing Jet Morgan in Charles Chilton's radio drama Journey into Space on the BBC Light Programme.

Acting career In 1959, Faulds and his wife played host to Paul Robeson, who had travelled to Britain to appear at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon in Tony Richardson's production of Othello. Robeson had only recently been permitted again to travel abroad, following the revocation of his passport. During this visit, Robeson inspired Faulds to take up political activism. In 1990, he called prime minister Margaret Thatcher a "stupid, negative woman" for sending troops into the Gulf.

In 1973, Labour leader Harold Wilson dismissed Faulds as Labour's arts spokesman for accusing Jewish MPs of dual loyalty.

A Europhile, Faulds was one of only five Labour MPs to vote for the Third Reading of the European Communities (Amendment) Act 1993 (which gave effect in UK law to the Maastricht Treaty) in 1993. In so doing, he defied his party whip, which was to abstain.

Filmography

The Million Pound Note (1954) – Chief Assistant at Tailor Shop (uncredited) Passport to Treason (1955) – Barrett Jumping for Joy (1956) – Drunk's Friend (uncredited) The One That Got Away (1957) – Lieutenant, Grizedale Blind Spot (1958) – Police Inspector Blood of the Vampire (1958) – Chief Guard Wetzler The Trollenberg Terror (1958) – Brett Sea of Sand (1958) – Sgt. Parker Danger Within (1959) – Lt. Comdr. 'Dopey' Gibbon, R.N. SOS Pacific (1959) – Sea Captain The Professionals (1960) – Inspector Rankin The Flesh and the Fiends (1960) – Inspector McCulloch Once More, with Feeling! (1960) – Interviewer (uncredited) Payroll (1961) – Detective Inspector Carberry The Hellfire Club (1961) – Lord Netherden A Matter of WHO (1961) – Ralph What Every Woman Wants (1962) – Derek Chadwick Cleopatra (1963) – Canidius Lorna Doone (1963) - Carver Doone Jason and the Argonauts (1963) – Phalerus The Protectors (1964) - Ian Souter Chimes at Midnight (1965) – Westmoreland A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966) The One Eyed Soldiers (1966) – Colonel Ferrer The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968) – Quaker preacher The Music Lovers (1970) – Davidov The Devils (1971) – Rangier Young Winston (1972) – Mounted Boer Mahler (1974) – Doctor on Train Lisztomania (1975) – Strauss